Waitress

“ In point of fact, the work of the waitress is nearly as general in its nature as that of the maid-of-all-work. She attends the door, as a matter of course, answers the bells from the chambers or drawing-room, brings hot water to the bedrooms in the morning, prepares and carries in the afternoon tea-tray, and must be on the alert to see that the house is in spick-and-span order. ”

“ The services of the waitress are confined to the drawing-room floor. She serves breakfast, luncheon and dinner, and afternoon tea where it is the custom. This is assuming, however, that there is no butler in the home. In this case she attends to all the other duties that would ordinarily fall upon him. She answers the door-bell, polishes the silver, helps with the washing of the dishes and sees that the table is correctly laid for each meal.
The parlor maid is a luxury enjoyed only by families of great wealth. ”

“ Be careful of which waitress you smile at on your first day, for she claims you as her especial property for the rest of your stay, and to ask another waitress to bring your eggs would be the deepest treason. ”

“ If there be a waitress, she passes the plates when they are ready; also the bread, butter, and coffee. The hostess usually puts the sugar and cream in the coffee, first asking each one if he will have these additions. After all have been served, it is quite common to dismiss the waitress, ringing for her if her services be again required. When there is but one servant, the family help each other after the breakfast has been placed upon the table. Fresh water is good for most people, and each person should be served with a tumblerful on taking a seat at the table. ”

“ All necessary articles are at hand, and even the boy of seven sets his own tray and helps himself to food, and takes his place at the table; and then when the meal is ended each one carries out his dishes and puts them in neat array for washing.
The waitress at a formal meal has to be alert, rapid yet gentle in all her motions, with a desire to make other people comfortable, and a faculty for remembering their likes and dislikes. A good waitress does not pass a second time a dish once declined. ”

“ A waitress with good health, a fair amount of brains, and a determination to be a better waitress than any woman was before, has a great field before her. But if she aspires to raise waiting to the dignity of a profession, she must study ”

“ If it is the waitress who is to be inducted into office, she should be taken to the china-closet, the contents of this and of the silver and linen drawers displayed, and the particular pieces pointed out that are in daily service. When the waitress is also the chambermaid, there are explanations required as to the upstairs work. ”

“ Just as it is better to hire a professional dinner-party cook than to run the risk of attempting a formal dinner with your own Nora or Selma unless you are very sure she is adequate, in the same way it is better to have a professional waitress as captain over your own, or a professional butler over your own inexperienced one, than to have your meal served in spasms and long pauses. But if your waitress, assisted by the chambermaid, perfectly waits on six, you will find that they can very nicely manage ten, even with accompanied dishes. ”

“ It is nothing to you, who always dine off the best at home, and never encounter dirty restaurants and snuffy inns, or run the gauntlet of Continental hotels, every meal being an experiment of great interest, if not of danger, to say that this brisk little waitress spread a snowy cloth, and set thereon meat and bread and butter and a salad: that conveys no idea to your mind. ”

“ A waitress who has become competent may arrange and serve special meals, delegating the work done formerly with a caterer to assistants under her. She must be careful not to attempt more than she can safely perform, and then carry out her plan with quiet confidence in her own ability. Except in case of an accident which she cannot remedy, she should not speak to the hostess, who should be left perfectly free to entertain her guests without a care about the food which they are eating. ”

“ A really good waitress can always command a proper return for her services. If she has brains enough to become a model waitress she will have sense enough to know what her services are worth, and her demands will be gladly acceded to when she has proved that her work is worth the price which she has placed upon it. This point being settled, she will be satisfied with the stated amount, and bend her mind to her work without any idea of attracting the favor of, or receiving tips from, any member or guest of the household. ”

“ Upon the waitress comes the work of opening and airing the living-rooms, brushing out the halls, sweeping down the stairs, and dusting the rooms. All this should be done before breakfast, and in order to achieve this, the waitress must rise as early as the cook. ”

“ For informal service, with a member of the family acting as a waitress, the former may quietly leave the table to attend to the bringing on or carrying off of a course, or to supplying water, butter, etc. But the same care and attention to everyone’s needs is expected of her as of a regular waitress. Water, butter, rolls, bread, etc., should never have to be asked for. Within reach of hand the waitress should always have a soft napkin to remove any liquid spilled during the meal, at once covering the spot with a fresh doily. ”

“ When the gentlemen, after smoking, join the ladies in the parlor, the waitress passes, on a tray, glasses which she fills with ice-cold Apollinaris or White Rock, and offers to each guest. When the guests are about to leave, the waitress, on the first signal of the parlor bell, goes to the front door to help the gentlemen on with their coats, hand them their canes and hats, and open the front door, while the chambermaid is in the dressing-room ready to help the ladies on with their wraps. ”

“ Butter must not be served so soon as to become soft.
A waitress is responsible for the proper heating of dishes before they are brought to the table.
A meal must not be announced until everything is ready which is or may be needed.
Everything not too large to rest comfortably upon a serving-tray should be handed from it.
Any dish from which a person at table [Pg 75] helps himself should be offered at the left. Any dish which the waitress serves should be placed at the right. ”

“ Remember that every sound can be heard in the dining-room, so be very careful not to make the slightest noise in handling the silver and china and to move the dumb waiter up and down very quietly and slowly. Be ready, when the waitress hands you the plates that have been used, to hand her back instantly the fresh plates for the next course till all are handed out, and to ring one bell to signal the cook the first time the waitress makes a sign to you to do it, and two bells the second time she gives you this sign. ”

“ Fifteen minutes before the hour for dinner, the waitress, after having lighted the lights on the parlor floor and in the front hall stands at the front door watching to open it promptly to prevent any guest from having to ring the bell. She helps the gentlemen off with their coats, hangs up their hats, places their canes in the rack, and hands them the tray on which the card envelopes have been placed. When all the guests have arrived, the chambermaid signals the cook this fact, then fills the glasses with iced water, while the waitress lights the candles on the dining-table. ”

“ A waitress usually has only to take off her apron to be ready for the street, but the other women have not time to change to street clothes and back again in their free period. They stay in the hot kitchen because no other place is provided.
Up at six, away at 6:30, home at 8 o’clock at night worn out by the wear and tear of twelve hours’ toil, a dress and an apron to be washed and ironed for tomorrow—after a day like this, what spirit or strength is left to a girl for play and the friendly relations that safeguard her from moral danger? ”

“ A waitress should remember, when going into a new family, that some things, which seem novel to her and only to be done away with, may be old-established family customs, to which she must adapt herself if she is to [Pg 89] give satisfaction. If she finds that pease, tomatoes, and other vegetables are served in a semi-liquid state instead of the drier one to which she has been accustomed, she must use the small dishes provided, remembering that the rule, “all vegetables are to be eaten from the dinner plate,” is not accepted by all housekeepers, although it is by a great number. ”

“ She prepares the meals, takes charge of the kitchen, cellar, and pantries, inspects the latter and the refrigerator every morning in company with the mistress of the house, and reigns supreme in the lower realms. In small families where two servants are employed the cook usually is laundress as well. In that case the waitress generally takes part of the cook's work on washing and ironing days, preparing the luncheon on those days, washing all the dishes, and keeping the kitchen in order. The waitress often assists with the fine ironing on Tuesday. ”

“ It’s my own predicament [17] I’m thinking about, not yours. Do you drink milk?”
A waitress had approached and was standing behind them.
She resented his brusque manner, now that the waitress was there to hear. “I have done such a thing,” she said. “As a rule I’m permitted to choose for myself.”
“Well, by all means do, then.”
She turned to the waitress and lowered her voice by a full tone. “A cup of chocolate, please; not too thick; and some wafers.” ”

“ Duties of Waitress and Cook.—Where two maids are kept they are waitress— "second girl" or "housemaid," sometimes so-called—and cook. The housemaid—we will so style her—opens and airs the house and dusts and arranges the rooms before breakfast. She serves the breakfast, clears the table and washes the dishes taken from it. She then proceeds to the bedrooms, putting them in order, dusting, making beds, etc. She will probably have fine lingerie waists, etc., to wash and iron on certain mornings. ”

“ What’s the use of providing a good dinner for your friends if they are going to spend all their time looking at the waitress? When I give a dinner it makes me tired to have the men afterwards speak of the waitress rather than of the purée or the birds. If any domestic is to dominate the repast at all it should be the cook.”
“Service counts for a great deal, though, Ted,” suggested Mrs. Perkins.
“True,” replied Thaddeus ”

“ What really tests the skill of a waitress is to serve a breakfast in the manner necessary in many families.
There is a regular breakfast hour at which three or four of the family are prompt; but one of the gentlemen, perhaps, has to breakfast an hour earlier in order to get to business in time, while others, whose studies or pleasures keep them late at night, come afterwards. ”

“ In houses where there is much entertaining, the parlor-maid or chambermaid is expected to help the butler or waitress whenever the number of guests makes this desirable. In all large cities and in suburban towns of good size it is easy to hire a cook or a waitress for the day. The correct dress for the latter is a plain black-stuff dress, white apron with bretelles, a plain linen collar and cuffs. ”

“ It will not be long before china closets which have been locked will be opened, old glass will be brought out for occasional use, and great pleasure expressed by its owners that it is again possible to have it handled without fear of its being destroyed. This [Pg 103] care bestowed upon inanimate things is one indication of a truthful character, and the waitress will find herself treated, not like one who must be watched and in a sense suspected, but with the confidence which is her right, and which will give her the sense of being an individual, not merely part of the household machinery. ”

“ Usually a man is employed to carry away the empty dishes, but the waitresses must bring the trays loaded with food.” [5]
Besides the cost to endurance, nerves are at constant tension for hurry is the remorseless rule. A waitress must not only remember a multitude of orders and fill them quickly, but she must keep her temper under the exactions of the most trying customer. The cook must keep her head amid the confusion and noise of a hot, crowded kitchen. The kitchen girl must be everywhere at once with a helping hand and the dish-washer’s very job depends upon her quickness. ”

“ His overcoat was wide open, and the wind was biting in, hard and full of merciless death.
... After a while a waitress spoke to him, a fat waitress with black-rimmed eye-glasses from which dangled a long black cord. ”

“ One waitress, if quick and deft, can readily wait on a dozen people, especially if all the necessary articles for changing the courses, plates, silver, etc., are arranged on a side table in the room or outside the door. ”

“ Never speak unless spoken to. A sociable waitress is bad form. Step softly and slow. Bring in and take out one thing at a time. Don’t stare, or seem to see anybody. Mr. Alex. is very particular to have his guests served properly.’ Mr. Alex.! I am anxious to see him. I suppose he is a great swell, but not greater than I have waited on 63in Boston, and who didn’t feel too big to say, ‘How are you, Polly? Mind and bring my soup hot, or tea or coffee, and get me some cream.’ I know a thing or two about a table as well as old mother Groves with her silk gown and gold glasses. ”

“ The waitress opens and airs the living-rooms, dusts the rooms and gets everything in readiness for breakfast. It is customary to excuse her as soon as the principal part of the breakfast has been served, so that she may attend to her chamber-work and be ready to come down to her breakfast by the time the family has finished. ”